Advent of the internet

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In the 21st century it's getting hard to imagine life before the arrival of the internet. With its origins in the packet-switched computer networks of the late 1960s, the internet gradually became a regular part of ordinary lives from the late 1980s. In 2011 it was estimated that 2.1 billion people regularly used the internet. In an era predating email, 'slacktivism' and 'mouse potatoes', computers were the domain of lab-coated technicians and scientists. Challenging this notion however were futurists and engineers who by the 1970s had developed the personal computer. The next step was to apply networking technology to the PC to meet potential communication and business needs.

By the 1970s, the computer could increasingly be found in workplaces and science fiction plot-lines. Such was the interest in this emerging technology that it became the subject of ABC-TV's Perspective science series. This clip from Perspective features an interview with author and futurist Arthur C. Clarke who makes bold and surprisingly accurate predictions about the applications of computer and internet-like technology.